


Pulse

by SaraJaye



Category: Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: Description of a burn, Female Friendship, Fire Emblem Fates: Revelation Spoilers, Fix-It, Gen, Injury Recovery, Major Character Injury, Scarlet Lives (Fire Emblem)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-12
Updated: 2020-10-12
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:41:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,352
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26973070
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SaraJaye/pseuds/SaraJaye
Summary: Scarlet's armor is broken, her tunic shredded, and she's badly burned. But she has a pulse.(Or, Scarlet survives getting blasted with strange dark magic, Corrin is relieved, and Ryoma clearly has a thing for Scarlet.)
Relationships: Implied Scarlet/Ryoma - Relationship
Comments: 1
Kudos: 10
Collections: Trope Bingo: Round Fifteen





	Pulse

She has a pulse.

When they landed, Scarlet was pale and still as death. Her armor is broken, her tunic shredded, patches of her skin still smoldering from the strange magic that attacked them. Corrin forces herself to look away from it; even though she's seen her share of blood and worse by now this is the worst she's ever seen.

But there's a pulse. It's faint, as though each beat could be its last, but it's there.

" _Sakura! Elise! Someone, anyone!_ " She frantically digs in her pack for vulneraries, bandages, anything. She briefly considers just carrying Scarlet by herself before realizing she doesn't even know where the others landed. She keeps checking Scarlet's wrist every few seconds, just to make sure that pulse is still there.

"Hang on, Scarlet, please..."

Jakob and Felicia arrive moments later, staves in hand, and Corrin slumps over in relief. She barely has time to savor it, though, or explain what happened, because enemies are suddenly approaching and so are the others. The battle commences and soon her focus is on the enemy. But all the while Scarlet remains at the back of her mind, along with a desperate plea to both Dawn and Dusk Dragon to let her survive.

When the dust settles, she finds Ryoma looking for Scarlet. Heart practically in her throat, Corrin leads him over to where she left her with Jakob and Felicia. Scarlet's still unconscious, unmoving, and pale, and Jakob's impassive look doesn't help matters.

"Scarlet..." Ryoma clenches his fist around the hilt of Raijinto. "How could this happen?"

"She was protecting me," Corrin murmurs. "She was barely alive when I had to leave, but-"

"Her life is her own," Jakob says. "She's suffered a few fractures and will likely have scarring, but Felicia managed to expunge the darkness and set her bones." Corrin lets out such a sigh of relief she sways, and Ryoma collapses to his knees beside Scarlet's body. For a second she's sure he's about to cry, but true to his nature he refuses to, instead taking several deep breaths.

"Thank you, Jakob. And Felicia is...?"

"Sleeping. She did most of the work." Jakob gestures over to a nearby rock, where Felicia lies curled up in a ball and snoring gently. "Remember to thank her when she wakes up." Ryoma nods, and begins to help Xander and the others construct a litter on which to carry the unconscious Scarlet. Jakob gently lifts up Felicia, and Lilith soon arrives to transport them back to the Astral Castle.

Camilla insists _everyone_ take a nap after all that, and nobody objects save for Ryoma's insistence on staying with Scarlet in the infirmary. Corrin falls asleep as soon as her head hits the pillow.

A few hours later, Corrin goes into the main castle to ask about Scarlet. Felicia is awake now, looking much more rested.

"Thank you," Corrin says as soon as she approaches her. "Jakob told me you were the one who saved Scarlet's life. I can't thank you enough, Felicia, truly." Felicia reddens, rubbing the back of her neck.

"You're welcome. But I mean, the important thing is she's alive, right?" she stammers. "Oh, and she woke up! Just a few minutes ago and she's still tired, and she still needs to stay in bed for a while, but she's awake! Sakura and Elise checked her over and it looks like she's gonna recover just fine other than the scarring." Corrin almost melts with relief.

"Can I see her? I mean, if she and Ryoma aren't..." Felicia blushes.

"I...would wait for him to let you in. He looked awfully impatient while I was checking over Scarlet, it sounded like he _really_ wanted a few minutes alone with her first!" she stammers. _I thought so._ Corrin can't help smiling, ever since she first met Scarlet and saw how the normally composed Ryoma reacted to her teasing she'd suspected _something_ was going on between them.

"I'll wait."

She's standing out in the hall for almost ten minutes before Ryoma finally comes out of the infirmary. Maybe it's her imagination, but his cheeks look pink and his eyes look almost misty.

"Sorry that took so long. She'd like to see you now, Corrin." Corrin nods, she and the others can grill Ryoma about what happened in there later. Right now she needs to see for herself that Scarlet's awake and alive. He closes the door behind him, and Corrin takes her spot on the chair beside the bed.

"Hey."

"Hey, you." Scarlet smiles a little. There's a bandage on her left cheek, one wrapped around her left arm, and she still looks tired and beaten up. "Sorry I worried everyone."

"Don't apologize." Corrin blinks away tears of relief. "Everyone's just glad you survived that. I'd tell you how crazy you were to leap in front of me, but..." She wants to argue that she can turn into a dragon, that she could have taken the blow and been fine, but she knows she could have just as easily died, or been as badly hurt as Scarlet is. "Thank you. I mean, you almost died for me and all."

"Anyone would've done the same." Scarlet reaches for her hand. "You're too important, kiddo, as worried as Ryoma was about me he'd have been beside himself if it were you in here," she says. "Even when he was disappointed in you for turning your back on Hoshido, he never stopped talking about you...I think he always believed you on some level."

"Even when I couldn't explain everything until now? And still can't talk about it unless we're actually there?" She wishes they could, but Azura still feels wary about it due to the curse and Corrin doesn't want to risk anything. "I'm glad he eventually came around, though."

"Me too. And I'm glad I survived that...I want to help you, Corrin. You and Ryoma and everyone else." Scarlet squeezes her hand, Corrin squeezing back gratefully. The beat of her pulse is stronger beneath the skin, which feels much warmer. "You really are special, kiddo. You've got the power to change this world for the better." Corrin's face gows hot, her free hand rubbing the back of her neck.

"You're laying it on a little thick, aren't you? A big part of this is all about how I want my families to get along."

"Yeah, a _part_ of it. The rest is about stopping a pointless war," Scarlet says. "I get that Nohr's in a bad way, of course I wish that'd change, but King Garon's going about that all wrong and he had no right to take it out on Hoshido. That's why I started the resistance. His war's making things even worse!"

"True." Killing her father, shattering Hoshido's barrier and killing her mother, Garon locking her up in a fortress and all but erasing her memories of Hoshido, invading the Ice Tribes and forcing Flora to do his bidding, and of course having Hans try to kill poor Gunter. "Of course, Hoshido isn't exactly very trusting of others..." But why would they be? Her father had trusted Garon once, and it had cost him his life.

"Well, everything's going to change thanks to you. And I'll be there to help you every step of the way." Scarlet smiles a little more, then yawns. "Of course, I could use some more rest first." Corrin nods, squeezing her hand again.

"I'll let you, then. I just...needed to see that you were okay with my own eyes."

"It'll take more than some mysterious magic to get rid of me." Scarlet leans back against her pillow and closes her eyes, and Corrin leaves the infirmary. Thankfully, only a few people are waiting to see her, and they understand when Corrin tells them it'll have to wait.

That night, she checks in on Scarlet again before she goes to bed. Ryoma's in the chair beside her again, holding her hand, and Corrin grins a little to herself.

_Maybe I'll wait another day or two to start grilling him. They deserve some peace._


End file.
